Michael Haynes (wrestler)

"Prince Iaukea" redirects here. For the Prince Iaukea who competed in Pacific Northwest Wrestling, see Rocky Iaukea.

Michael Hayner
Ring name(s)	Prince Iaukea[1] The Artist Formerly Known as Prince Iaukea[1] The Artist[1] The Tongan Prince
Billed height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)[1]
Billed weight	219 lb (99 kg)[1]
Born	Honolulu, Hawaii[1]
Resides	Florida
Billed from	Honolulu, Hawaii The Kingdom of Tonga
Trained by	Larry Simon Dean Malenko Rico Federico WCW Power Plant[1]
Debut	1995

Michael Hayner (sometimes known as Mike Haynes, Mike Haines or Mike Haynor) is a professional wrestler best known as Prince Iaukea in World Championship Wrestling. Haynes has also made a career performing and coordinating stunts for major motion pictures.^[1] He earned a Black Belt in Judo right after high school and is well trained in amateur and submission wrestling. He has trained with former USMC champions Greg Gibson and Craig Pittman, submission wrestlers Gordon Nelson, Ron Hill, and Karl Gotch.

Career

World Championship Wrestling (1995–2000)

After being trained by Dean Malenko and Rico Federico, Haynes debuted on World Championship Wrestling (WCW) pay-per-view Fall Brawl 1995 as a cadet delivering papers to Cobra for Craig Pittman. Later, Kevin Sullivan brought him to some TV tapings and was so impressed by his professionalism, overall attitude, and respect for the business that Sullivan gave him the Iaukea name taken from Curtis Iaukea, a good friend of Sullivan. Prince Iaukea debuted on WCW TV in 1996 and quickly made a name for himself with his unique Samoan persona and real submission wrestling skills along with solid pro wrestling ability. The common pronunciation of his ring name came about by the mispronunciation from WCW Announcer Tony Schiavone. Prince Iaukea also received blessing from King Curtis Iaukea during a phone conversation with King Curtis telling him that "he was family" and that he enjoyed the work that Prince was doing.

On February 17, 1997, Iaukea captured the WCW World Television Championship by defeating Lord Steven Regal^[1] and would hold it for 2 months before losing it to Ultimate Dragon. Iaukea then went off to tour New Japan working with established greats such as Shinjiro Otani and Koji Kanemoto. On the tour he was kicked severely by Koji Kanemoto and badly injured. Japanese booker Riki Chōshū was a huge supporter of Iaukea.

Back in WCW, Iaukea would then float around the lower mid-card for several years, mainly because of an alleged romantic link between Iaukea and the wife of an upper level WCW executive. Iaukea denied the allegations, but the rumor persisted. He was repackaged in 1999 as The Artist Formerly Known as Prince Iaukea, a comedic gimmick based on singer Prince. Later, his ring name was shortenend to simply The Artist. He won the WCW World Cruiserweight Championship from Lash LeRoux in February 2000.^[1] The Artist would lose the title to Billy Kidman and later reclaim it^[1] before being stripped of the title by Vince Russo in April 2000 when Russo and Eric Bischoff "re-launched" WCW.

Independent circuit (2001–Present)

After WCW was purchased by the World Wrestling Federation in March 2001, he wrestled the independent scene traveling around the country for various promotions. He was briefly known as The Tongan Prince for Jimmy Hart's X Wrestling Federation, but when that went under he used his military background and went to work for a security contractor overseas. In 2007 he started 3SX Entertainment (Samoan Strong Style Xtreme Wrestling and Entertainment) in American Samoa where work on a Pro Wrestling and MMA Dojo is ongoing.

He won the NWA Florida Junior Heavyweight title of the Floridan promotion Pro Wrestling Fusion by defeating Chris Jones on November 29, 2008, and held it for 6 months before losing it back to Chris Jones, but he rebounded and received a Heavyweight title shot against Steve Madison only to lose a close contest.^[1]

Current Life

In addition to his professional wrestling career, Haynes also has considerable experience as a martial artist, stunt performer and coordinator in motion pictures. Mike Haynor can be found on IMDB.com as a professional stunt man for several well known movies, including: Scream 2, Bowfinger, Austin Powers 2, and most recently Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Ready to Rumble.^[1][2]

Haynes is also a devout Christian and hopes to set an example for others by his professional attitude and demeanor.

Haynes owns and promotes 3SX Pro Wrestling and 3SX Entertainment which runs events in the Pacific, particularly American Samoa and New Zealand.

Haynes also has a son who wrestles under the name of Nick Primo in the professional wrestling industry. They both currently work for Pro Wrestling Fusion, and New Florida Wrestling (NFW), Both are Florida based independent wrestling promotions.

In wrestling

• Finishing moves
  • Diving DDT^[1]
  • Swan dive headbutt (Diving headbutt)^[1]

• Signature moves
  • Back body drop
  • Backhand chop
  • Diving crossbody
  • Double leg takedown^[3]
  • Dropkick^[3]
  • Multiple chop variations
  • Multiple suplex variations
    • Belly to belly
    • Cradle
    • German
    • Northern Lights
  • Samoan drop to an oncoming opponent
  • Slingshot crossbody^[3]
  • Slingshot leg drop
  • Snap swinging neckbreaker
  • Springboard clothesline
  • Springboard seated senton
  • Sunset flip, sometimes from the top rope
  • Superkick^[3]

• Managers
  • Paisley

• Nicknames
  • "TAFKAPI"^[1]

Championships and accomplishments

• Pro Wrestling Fusion
  • NWA Florida Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[1]

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • PWI Rookie of the Year (1997)^[1]
  • Pro Wrestling Illustrated ranked him #495 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003

• World Championship Wrestling
  • WCW Cruiserweight Championship (2 times)^[1]
  • WCW World Television Championship (1 times)^[1]

• Other titles
  • eXtreme Japan World Championship (2 times)
  • FXCW World Championship (2 times)
  • GPCW World Championship (3 times)
  • IWF InterNational Championship (1 time)

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t} "Prince Iaukea profile". Online World of Wrestling. http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/profiles/p/prince-iaukea.html. Retrieved 2009-09-04. 
2. ^ "Michael Haynes (VIII) profile". IMDB.com. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2375647/. Retrieved 2010-08-06. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d} "The Dead Pool vs Norman Smiley, Prince Iaukea & Lash Leroux". World Championship Wrestling. WCW Monday Nitro. 1999-08-09.

External links

Professional wrestling portal

• Michael Haynes (wrestler) at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
Name	Hayner, Michael,
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth
Place of birth	Honolulu, Hawaii
Date of death
Place of death